hello

enablers

Since I unleashed my creative bent several years ago (after a hiatus between my late teens and my late twenties) I have had mixed (generally positive) responses from my friends and family. Some think it's sweet (an unfortunate association people have historically made with me when all I've ever wanted to be was incredibly cool and funky with a sharp, sophisticated edge. Sigh); some are delighted and amused, even if they're not quite sure why (I think they tend to delight in the novelty value of seeing someone sew and stitch); some are moved that I would make something by hand for them or their new one; and some are inspired, however briefly, to join the fun of it all and either unleash their own creative beast or at least revisit some crafty skills of their very own that they had tried to bury in their deep, dark pasts. These are certainly not mutually exclusive categories, indeed many have had a combination of all of them at once, some days. Nevertheless, I love all of them and am just grateful that no one has snickered when I've made my craft tendencies public.

One of my favourite categories of friend/family, however, are the ones I will call the Craft Enablers. For instance, my mother emerged early as a Craft Enabler when she sent me a great book on handmade loveliness from which I promptly crocheted the coolest tomato hat ever for a new baby that had just arrived in the world. Another unfailing Craft Enabler, despite the sheer amount of handmade things I have inflicted on her and her family, has been my good friend Von Boysenberry (a pseudonym, if you were wondering). She is the woman behind these skeins of loveliness which arrived in frosty Manitoba shortly after Christmas. They are by Wooltopia and are so full of the light and colour of my home city in Australia that I was momentarily spellbound when I opened the packet.